Free

from now on

Photo by Virgil Cayasa on Unsplash

I have become so ripe and so willing.

All the groundwork has been laid,
All the homework has been turned in.

All the structures that propped up 
    the survivor's scaffolding,
Never bound to survive themselves,

Have collapsed in the winds
   off the mountains of a lifetime.

I stand stripped.
There is nothing more
   the winds can take.

And I still stand!

More naked, more raw
    than ever.

Finally
With full permission

to love me.